Recent Stories with tag val kiossovski

Since getting introduced to it a couple weeks ago when a friend from out-of-town with a taste for elaborate cocktails dragged me to the Knee High Stocking Co. , Seattle's speakeasy-themed bar at Bellevue Ave. and Olive on Capitol Hill, it seems like Cynar (pronounced, apparently, with a ch sound at the beginning) is popping up everywhere. Either it's the hot new liqueur in town, or I've been operating with blinders on. It's on the  shelf at Cafe Presse and just got picked up at Solo Bar & Gallery in Lower Queen Anne, to name only two I can verify.

So the question is, what exactly is it and what do you do with it? The answer to the first is: it's an Italian liqueur in the same vein as Campari (which for many drinks it can be used as a substitute to different but functional effect) or St. Germain or any of a variety of other herbal liqueurs that have picked up a bit of cache of late. Cynar is made from 13 separate ingredients, but the one everyone always mentions is the artichoke. Fortunately, it does...